Article

The Uruguayan president, Jose Mujica, said on Tuesday that he asked legislators from his party to “halt” the process to legalize the sale and buying of marijuana and which would make the state the sole manager of the drug.

In statements to Canal 10 television in Uruguay, Mujica affirmed his wish to soften the development of this project until the population understands the intent of the measure.

Zero tolerance drug policies in high schools, undercover officers soliciting marijuana from teens, and sanctions involving the removal of support for education and employment are forcing young people into a hopeless maze of stigma, poverty and the criminal justice system.

Californians voted to put an end to one of the harshest and least effective sentencing laws in the country. Proposition 36 ensures that no more people are sentenced to life in prison for minor and nonviolent drug law violations. Implementation of the new law will not only bring relief to petty offenders moving forward, but inmates currently serving life sentences for non-serious, non-violent crimes can apply for a new sentence.

Montevideo- -- The Uruguayan government will sell 40 grams of marijuana a month for around $35 to each of the consumers officially registered, if the bill is approved which puts the production and sale into the hands of the state, said official sources today.

The director of the National Drug Board, Julio Calzada, told Radio Carve that the price will be the same as the price of marijuana currently in the black market and the drugs that the Uruguayan state will produce and sell will “have strict quality control”.

Drug extravagance atrophies taste. The excesses of the capos were something out of a fable: they built swimming pools with sharks, adorned their mansions with Piassos, sent for giraffes and hippos from Africa, erected a statue for John Lennon, and offered to pay foreign debt.

The feds claim that the only victims in their crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries are profiteering drug peddlers out to make money off of marijuana-hungry citizens -- but that's far from the truth.

It is simply unacceptable to stand on the sidelines while unelected prosecutors put patients at risk, destroy jobs, undermine California's tax base, and hand large parts of the medical marijuana market back over to violent drug traffickers and crime syndicates.

Key Points of Marijuana Legalization Proposal

The intention of the proposal is to regulate the cannabis market in order to reduce the risks faced by marijuana users – which constitute the major of drug users in Uruguay – when they turn to illegal markets to obtain marijuana. This connects them with criminal organizations and individuals who additionally offer access to higher-risk drugs, such as coca paste. The aim is to separate the two markets.